Gazi Mahabubul Alam

Child marriage in Bangladesh: trends and determinants.

This study examines the trends and determinants of child marriage among women aged 20-49 in Bangladesh. Data were extracted from the last six nationally representative Demographic and Health Surveys conducted during 1993-2011. Simple cross-tabulation and multivariate binary logistic regression analyses were adopted. According to the survey conducted in 2011, more than 75% of marriages can be categorized as child marriages. This is a decline of 10 percentage points in the prevalence of child marriage compared with the survey conducted in 1993-1994. Despite some improvements in education and other socioeconomic indicators, Bangladeshi society still faces the relentless practice of early marriage. The mean age at first marriage has increased by only 1.4 years over the last one and half decades, from 14.3 years in 1993-1994 to 15.7 years in 2011. Although the situation on risk of child marriage has improved over time, the pace is sluggish. Both the year-of-birth and year-of-marriage cohorts of women suggest that the likelihood of marrying as a child has decreased significantly in recent years. The risk of child marriage was significantly higher when husbands had no formal education or little education, and when the wives were unemployed or unskilled workers. Muslim women living in rural areas have a greater risk of child marriage. Womens education level was the single most significant negative determinant of child marriage. Thus, the variables identified as important determinants of child marriage are: education of women and their husbands, and womens occupation, place of residence and religion. Programmes to help and motivate girls to stay in school will not only reduce early marriage but will also support overall societal development. The rigid enforcement of the legal minimum age at first marriage could be critical in decreasing child marriage.

Determinants of Institutional Delivery Among Women in Bangladesh

This study examines the factors that influence institutional delivery among women in Bangladesh extracting data from 2007 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey. We employed both bivariate and multivariate statistical analyses in this study. Findings revealed that, only 14.7% of the women went for institutional delivery and 28.8% births were delivered by trained birth attendance. The multivariate logistic regression analysis yielded quantitatively important and reliable estimates of facility delivery. The likelihood of institutional delivery was significantly higher for first-order pregnancy, couples’ higher education, the richest, higher autonomy, TV ownership, non-Muslims, who received antenatal care services, pregnancy complications, and urban residents. Government should ensure quality of care, easy accessibility, and availability of all facilities free of cost in the public medical institutions. Women should be informed regarding the long-term benefit of institutional delivery through information, education, and communication program.

Global warming and climate change: prospects and challenges toward long-term policies in Bangladesh

Because of its geographic location, low elevation of sea level, high population density, over dependence on natural resource and less ability to cope with the issues, Bangladesh is considered as one of the most vulnerable countries in confronting the challenges of climate change and impact of global warming. Understanding this background, this study enlightens recent climate change experiences, efforts at national and international level, frameworks of policies and national outlines. This study identifies three areas to deal with climate change vision. They are aissues bimpacts congoing initiatives for strategies and evaluations and policy preparations. Experiences of this study can be useful for the operational tools in dealing with climate change related visions in Bangladesh and elsewhere with similar economic and ecological conditions.

Climate Change issues: Challenges for Natural Resource Management in Bangladesh- a way forward

This study aimed to understand the climate change issues in Bangladesh by focusing on the specific operational guidance to Natural Resource Management (NRM) over time. The specific justification is used to figure out the factors that are responsible. To have an effective plan and guideline, this study has emphasised on some direct required actions and alternative options for long-run measures. Moreover, this study discussed the national lacking, limitation, required action and possible course of alternative option and a way forward to overcome the problems by the subject to current research effort and value. Finally, following on the raised issues, this study has introduced enhanced framework of strategies and guidelines to the concerned body and policy-makers in Bangladesh.

Climate change adaptation provisions for the agricultural sector in Malaysia

Malaysia has been experiencing an unusual harsh mixture of droughts and extreme rainfall events at present. As consequence, significant fall in crop production will be caused in the coming years. Current agriculture adaptation strategies are not significantly enough to cope with this issue. Therefore, this study aims to capture the scenarios in the field of climate change adaptation. The main focus of this study is to chalk out the adaptation efforts that the government and local stakeholders should consider. This study identifies the challenges associated with the implementation of adaptation options for the agricultural sector in response to climate change. Furthermore, this study presents some insight on the possible future strategies for adaptation that legislators may consider in designing and formulating the policy which may ultimately help the agricultural sector of Malaysia to be effective. Such adaptation framework actions and measures are adjudicated to assure cohesive participation of all concerned development bodies including government and non-government organisations along with local communities towards achieving the appropriate climate change response.

Balancing Managerial and Academic Values: Mid-Level Academic Management at a Private University in Malaysia.

Purpose – Representing both “central university administration” and academics, deans are increasingly being confronted with the competing managerial and academic values. Being able to manage the competing values is pivotal to the success of a dean. However, there is dearth of research studying this. Considering the for-profit private sector may face greater challenge in dealing with the competing values, the purpose of this paper is to understand how deans in the private sector have managed this. Design/methodology/approach – A case study was conducted using two exemplar faculties of a private university in Malaysia as sample. The main sources of data are one-year field work which is supplemented by eight years’ archival data. Findings – The findings show that sustainable deans have found a common ground between the competing values. The common ground aligns the central university administration, the deans and the academics, and contributes to the sustainability of the faculties and university. Originalit...

The Role of Higher Education in Institutionalising Climate Change in Bangladesh

Since the inception of higher education (HE) over one hundred years ago, its purpose has been to cater for the religious and social leaders who will be competent enough to run the country. Paradigm shifting in HE has made society realise that every profession demands competent professionals to provide balanced development across all educational sectors in order to see national development progress. As a result, universities now provide a wide range of training and education in the arts, sciences, social sciences and commerce, which may have caused the recent IT and e-commerce revolution. However, the primary contribution of HE is still seen as supporting economic development because it contributes less than other developmental phenomena. In developing nations, the issue of climate change is yet to be perceived either as an economic or as a social developmental agenda item. Consequently, HE provides less attention to climate change. However, climate change has a serious impact not only on economic development but also on social development. Therefore, HE needs to discover a concrete and substantial way in which to handle climate change. This novel piece of research, which is the first of its kind in Bangladesh, used qualitative methods in order to outline the policy direction that HE may adopt to make its role more distinct in handling climate change.